Hello, Baby
by ElliotGlass11
Summary: Tumblr prompt: Doctor/Clara baby/pregnant fic? Note: There were some formatting issues when I published this earlier, ack! I've fixed them now, sorry about that.


Clara stood in front of the mirror with her shirt lifted above her navel just staring down at it. Her hands slowly crept up to the skin, smoothing over it shakily, and swallowed.

She knew she was pregnant, of course; almost 6 weeks in. She'd just… never noticed the bump. Maybe it was the fact that today she'd gone for the more relaxed yoga pants and vest top than her usual well-refined attire. Maybe it was that she'd finally had a day or two to just unwind in the TARDIS rather than running around on adventures or at her job or in her normal, human, hectic lifestyle. She was trying it out, living here permanently. And for some reason today there was a bigger mirror in the loo adjacent to her room, and… she'd noticed it.

Clara was fairly skinny and ate very well, especially since she'd found out about the baby. She'd just not really thought to look for any changes so soon. Or so late. She wasn't sure; she'd never been pregnant before. But as her hands moved up to her abdomen, there was certainly a change.

She swallowed, moving a suddenly sweaty palm over the expansion slowly. She exhaled slowly. "Hello, baby," she murmured in a half-whisper, and smiled slightly. Her hands returned to her hips and she just stared, dumbfounded, for a moment.

She jumped, gasping slightly, when larger, stronger hands slid over hers and weaved themselves through her fingers. He pressed his torso against her back as she tried to calm her breathing.

"Alright?" The Doctor breathed in her ear; she could tell by the angle his jaw was against her neck that he was looking at it, too.

"Yeah," she respired, breath still shaky. "I just… it's gotten bigger. More… noticeable. It's not just getting sick and being really hungry anymore, I'm actually pregnant." Her tongue stumbled over the last word, unused to saying it and somehow fearful of his reaction to the subject. She'd seen him with kids, but babies? Pregnancy? Women in general?

"You were before," he reminded her on a soft chuckle.

"I know, just…" She heard him continue to laugh at her. "Shut up! You know what I mean."

He stopped laughing at her, mostly, and rested his face on her neck.

It was silent for a moment, and then he spoke very quietly.

"Are you scared?"

She gulped. She didn't want him to know; that would only make him more scared than he probably already was. If Clara Oswald was scared, perhaps the world really was coming to an end.

"You don't need to be," he finally said, and she was grateful he didn't make her answer.

She laughed slightly. "Don't I?"

"No," he asserted confidently. "Time lord DNA is similar enough to human that there shouldn't be any complications for a while. I've seen it combined before. I'm certain you and baby will be just fine."

Clara shifted against him. "That's all very comforting, Doctor, but that's not exactly what I'm worried about."

"Then what is?" He had his nose in her hair and she had a feeling he wasn't concentrating very hard on what she'd said. Good.

"I -" She stopped herself, trying to phrase it right. "I've never been a mum before. I don't even really know what I have to do. I've read books, but it never seems like enough. And I had the world's best mum, and… she's not really around to tell me what to do. I feel like I might do it wrong. Like baby deserves more than that." It was apparent that they were simply addressing it as 'baby' now.

"Clara Oswald," he said in that slightly chiding, unbelievably comforting tone of his. He wrapped his arms around her midsection, pulling her closer to him. "You'll be just as good as your old mum, I promise, and better. We know plenty of mummies we can go visit to ask for help if we need it. If you need it, or anything at all. We've got the whole universe at our disposal. And no baby deserves as good as you of a mum. The only reason I know that this one will," his hand moved down her side and up again, "is because it is at least some parts Clara Oswald, and that makes it perfect."

Maybe it was her hormones - okay, it was definitely her hormones, or at least mostly - but Clara found herself tearing up, and clutched his arms to her. "Thank you," she whispered, trying not to show it in her voice.

"And hey, it helps that it's also parts really cool time lord!" He moved around her, not removing his arms from her waist as he moved to face her.

She laughed in his face. "Oh, really? I'd had the impression you were the father."

"That is not funny!"

She laughed anyway, and he shut her up by kissing her tenderly and lazily. Like a married couple, they were. Though, they were really everything but. It was all quite complicated. That was how it was with the Doctor, Clara supposed. Complicated. She couldn't say she minded.

Slowly, he broke from her and kissed down her jawline and down the length of her neck in a trail of sweet, brief pecks. Then all the way from her collarbone, he moved lower until his lips were at her belly, which he kissed several times and in several places. She smiled, eyes wetting again as she watched him. He broke away and frowned in concentration as his hands traced patterns over her skin.

She watched him, raising an eyebrow.

"I wonder if this works," she heard him murmur.

"If what works?" She whispered, not wanting to break his concentration on - whatever it was he was concentrating on.

"Circular Gallifreyan," he responded quietly as his hands moved over her. "It's not so much a learned language as an instinct. Simple words - basic, elemental parts of life - often come naturally to young time lord children. Sometimes, even to infants."

Clara smiled. "What are you saying?"

He looked up at her with a bright-eyed grin. "I'm introducing myself."

Her grin spread across her face as she watched his hands. "So that's how you write it."

"Yes," he confirmed. "Doctor."

She reached down abruptly and stopped him at the wrists. "No," she breathed. "Daddy. Tell it you're its daddy."

His eyebrows shot up and he looked down at her navel like he was scared of it. His hands moved slower now, less calculating and more habitual. The change warmed Clara's heart. He echoed her words from earlier in a similar tone. "Hello, baby." He paused. "This is Daddy speaking."

Clara felt something - and yelped, standing up rigidly. The Doctor paled immediately and fumbled to get to his feet.

"What? What is it? Are you hurt? What happened?" His hands moved about her frantically. She was right, he had no idea what to do with pregnancy.

"No, not hurt just - it - I think it moved, Doctor," she said quickly. "Is it supposed to do that, this early on? It really isn't for a human baby, but a time lord -"

He broke her off by scanning her up-and-down with the sonic screwdriver.

"No, no, no, no, no," Clara grabbed the tool from his hand and held it away from him. "No scanning, no buzzing - I don't want you unlocking something important down there!"

"I was just having a scan!" He moaned. She shot him a warning look, and he shut up.

"We don't know anything about this - neither of us. Until we find someone who does, let's just stick with what we do know, okay?"

He pouted, but nodded.

"So, what do we know? Is this normal? Could it be moving, or am I paranoid?"

"You are paranoid," he muttered, glancing at the screwdriver, and continued. "Yes, it's possible, I suppose - childhood development is somewhat accelerated within time lords, it very well could have made early advancements -"

"Hold on, are you saying it might come early? That this might take less time than usual because it grows faster?" Regardless of the strife of a normal-rate pregnancy, Clara didn't want that - she wanted what she knew was healthy, and she didn't want to see her baby age faster than normal - maybe even catch up to her faster than normal -

"No, no." He moved towards her and ran his hands up and down her arms comfortingly as they fell to her sides. "I was simply saying that its brain sensors might respond at an accelerated rate, especially to such a strong psychic signal -"

"You sent it a psychic signal?" She demanded through gritted teeth, holding up the screwdriver threateningly.

"No, no! Not intentionally!" He held his hands up in defense. "It would have been a reaction to such a strong emotional connection or sentiment, my fault, but sort of unavoidable. It's part time lord, so it will not do any damage, that you can be sure of."

Clara lowered the weapon, but her worry didn't disappear. "And will it be… faster? Will it be a normal baby?"

He laughed, and wrapped his arms around her. "Yes! You've no need to worry - it won't grow at an accelerated rate, only respond. It will likely have a stronger emotional attachment to both of us, given its natural psychic connection. But I promise, otherwise, it'll be perfectly normal. And healthy. And fine, just… fine! Everything will be fine, Clara."

She returned the embrace, sighing into his shirt when he buried his head in her hair. But she began to giggle.

"What?"

"'Basic, elemental parts of life' - and you thought it would respond to Doctor? How big is your ego?"

He stood up straighter, flustered, as he broke from her. "I - I only assumed that - the emotional link would be strong enough to-"

"Maybe you should be the one reading parenting books, Chin Boy," she chuckled as she turned and left the room.

He followed after. "Where are you going now?"

"Kitchen," she said easily. "You are gonna make me something to eat. I'm bloody starving."

"Fine." He turned her around promptly and kissed her - more like a lovesick teenager now than a married man - and ran off without her. "Race ya!"

Clara fumed, tempted to go after him, but knowing she shouldn't. "You'll pay for that once we catch up you ya! Two against one!"

She smiled to herself as she walked slowly after him, hearing his footsteps out in the hall, and knew, somewhere in her alphabet-soup of thoughts, that they'd be alright, in the end. He kept them together, he always did. It really was all going to be okay.

Her hand moved over her tiny bump as she walked. "Hope you liked him. He's sticking around."


End file.
